instruct
/ɪnˈstɹʌkt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.31 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To give (one's own lawyer) legal instructions as to how they should act in relation to a particular issue; thereby formally appointing them as one's own legal representative in relation to it.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Listen carefully when someone instructs you how to assemble the furniture."
- "Supply me with the habit and instruct me How I may formally in person bear me Like a true friar."
- "What a dishonour’s this, to me, to have so Dull a Father, that needs to be instructed in his Duty."
- "1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 156, 14 September, 1751, in Volume 5, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 177, […] the design of tragedy is to instruct by moving the passions,"
- "[…] I should deem you a man sore sick, it may be, yet not so sick but that an instructed and watchful physician might well hope to cure you."
- "At the Laundromat I instruct Chris on how to operate the drier, start the washing machines […]"
Etymology
From Latin īnstrūctus, perfect passive participle of īnstruō (“I instruct; I arrange, furnish, or provide”).
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɪnˈstɹʌkt/
- British English: /ɪnˈstɹʌkt/